SICT to Use New Procedures to Evaluate Plans for Roads, Rails

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) will implement new procedures to improve the efficient and effective use of resources in rail and road infrastructure projects, developing a new methodology that will evaluate all aspects of the infrastructure plans. 

Jorge Nuño Lara, Minister of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport, explained that the agency will seek to implement better planning exercises to improve prospective road and rail infrastructure. “Projects are an end and not a means, so their preparation requires the timely detection of possible social, environmental and economic impacts, among others,” said Nuño via a SICT press release. The road and rail infrastructure forecast for 2022-2031 will be published on SICT’s official webpage and will be updated on a yearly basis. 

The new evaluation will focus on Social Risks for Road Infrastructure Development and Management and pay special attention to stages in each project. Authorizations will evaluate costs and benefits based on priority, performance goals, profitability and feasibility indicators.

Nuño also inaugurated the PIARC 2022 International Seminar organized by the Mexican Association of Roadway Engineering (AMIVTAC), the Mexican Institute of Transport (IMT) and SICT, highlighting the agency’s plans to adequately evaluate all future infrastructure projects with a strict methodology. 

“Every project has a social value, which is in some cases difficult to quantify, and it is up to the administrator to distribute this value, which is why the Ministry wants to strengthen planning exercises through the perspective of road and rail infrastructure. What we envision for the following years is that these measures increase the quality of long-term investments, improve the efficiency of the projects, as well as their budgetary efficiency, for the benefit of the communities,” explained Nuño. 

SICT seeks to implement a process that guarantees better solutions in terms of time, cost and quality. The objective also relies on creating more efficient and effective projects that have an adequate preparation of projects.